Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union (Space Race Didn't End)
The Soviet Union (Russian: Сове́тский Сою́з, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик Сове́тский Сою́з (СССР), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik Sovetsky Soyuz (SSSR)), also known unofficially as Russia (Russian: Росси́я, tr. Rossiya) is a socialist state in Eurasia that was formed in 1922. Nominally a union of 15 equal national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized until recent reforms in the mid-1970s. The country is a one-party federation, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital and largest city. At 22,402,200 km2 (8,649,500 sq mi), the Soviet Union is the second largest country in the world by total area, after the British Commonwealth. It borders Finland and Norway in the northwest, People's Republic of Poland, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Hungarian People's Republic and Socialist Republic of Romania in the west, Turkey and Iran in the southwest, People's Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, North China and Mongolian People's Republic in the south, and North Korea in the southeast. It also shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the United States across the Bering Strait. With a population of over 560,000,000 as of 2017, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union is the world's fourth most populous country. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government which had replaced Tsar Nicholas II. In 1922, the Soviet Union was formed with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian republics. Following Lenin's death in 1924 and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin committed the state's ideology to Marxism–Leninism (which he created), and initiated a centrally planned economy. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization. Political paranoia was also fomented around Stalin, and the Great Purge was carried out to remove his opponents from the Communist Party through arbitrary arrests and persecutions of many people. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, after which the two countries invaded Poland in September 1939. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at intense battles such as Stalingrad. The territories overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the USSR. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Eastern Bloc which united under the Warsaw Pact in 1955 confronted the Western states which united under NATO in 1949. The Soviet Union emerged from World War II as a recognized industrial and military superpower, along with the United States and the British Commonwealth. Following Stalin's death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as "de-Stalinization" and "Khrushchev's Thaw", occurred under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviet Union took an early lead in the Space Race, with the first artificial satellite and the first human spaceflight. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Nikita Khrushchev was dismissed in October 1964 and was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev. Under Leonid Brezhnev's leadership, it would mark the end of the Arms Race when the Soviet Union cut back on its defense budget and even began scraping its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Despite its reduced defense budget, the Soviet Union continued ahead with some military projects, such as [[Project 1123 Condor (Space Race Didn't End)|Project 1123 Condor]], [[Project 1143 Krechyet (Space Race Didn't End)|Project 1143 Krechyet]] and [[Project 1153 Orel (Space Race Didn't End)|Project 1153 Orel]]. In April 1970, it became the world's second country to land a man on the moon. The 1970s was a period of brief détente of relations with the United States, which quickly led to the SALT I and SALT II to reduce their nuclear warheads. The early 1970s was marked by the launch of the world's first space station, the first moon base and the first flyby to Venus. The Vietnam War and Battle of Hanoi led to the collapse of North Vietnam after USSR as a result of its reduced defense budget was unable to support North Vietnam. It later led to the China War after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, which led to the country being divided in North China and South China. The China War would last until 2002, and resulted in over 200 million casaulties. In the mid-1970s, Lenoid Brezhnev introduced major reforms to the Soviet Union, which was called ''perestroika''. The 1980s were marked with the death of Leonid Brezhnev in November 1982, he was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev, who directed the perestroika program. Shortly before Brezhnev's death, the Soviet Union began construction on a radio telescope on the dark side of the moon. Tensions between the two superpowers also rose due to increased Soviet troops along the border as a result of the China War. 1988 finally marked the end of the Arms Race, as the Soviet Union's last ICBMs were scrapped. Despite this, the Soviet Union went ahead with major military projects such as [[Project 1143.5 Kuznetsov (Space Race Didn't End)|Project 1143.5 Kuznetsov]], [[Project 1143.7 Ulyanovsk (Space Race Didn't End)|Project 1143.7 Ulyanovsk]] and [[Kirov-class battlecruiser (Space Race Didn't End)|Project 1144 Orlan]]. Due to rapid growth rates as a result of the reforms introduced in the USSR, massive immigration to the Soviet Union began in the 1980s as the Soviet economy grew rapidly. In 1988, the Soviet economy grew with a record-breaking 90.1%, the highest growth rate ever recorded. In the early 1990s, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union boomed economically as its defense budget was just under 10% of its GDP, compared to 20% in 1970. During the 1980s, the Soviet Union had established new special economic zones and development areas as a result of the ongoing Space Race, such as telecommunications, automotive and information technology (IT); with its first special economic zone being established in Vladivostok. As a result, the Soviet Union emerged as a major economic and industrial superpower and became the world's largest national economy, surpassing the United States and shocking the world. In 1990, the Soviet GDP was $9.43 trillion, which would increase to above $10 trillion in 1991 and $16.6 trillion in 1993. It surpassed the $20-trillion mark in 1995 and the $25-trillion mark in 1998. By 2000, the Soviet GDP had grown to $33 trillion. The Soviet economy would continue to grow rapidly well into the 2010s and 2020s, and the Soviet economy would grow to $35-trillion in 2003, grew to $40-trillion in 2010, $45-trillion in 2015 and by 2021, the Soviet GDP surpassed the $50-trillion mark. Along with Japan and West Germany, the USSR has by far remained as one of the fastest-growing major economies. The 1990s also saw some major achievements, as the Soviet Union was the first country to launch the world's first large orbital space station, ''Mir'' in 1991, the first country to land on the moon planet Europa circling Jupiter in 1994, and the first flyby to Saturn in 1996. By the end of the 1990s, the population of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union was 375,000,000, the fourth largest country in the world by population. In the 2010s, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union emerged as an recognized industrial, military, economic and technological hyperpower, surpassing that of recognized superpowers such as Japan and the United States.